Box Score

LOS ANGELES – Cal State L.A.'s baseball team had a big rally left in it Friday night and the Golden Eagles needed it in the opener of a four-game California Collegiate Athletic Association series against Cal Poly Pomona.
 
The Golden Eagles rallied from a five-run deficit and got six runs in the eighth inning to surge past the Broncos, 9-6, Friday at Reeder Field. Cal State L.A. (20-15, 16-13) has climbed into a fourth-place tie with Sonoma State in a tightly-packed CCAA. The top four teams will advance to the conference championship tournament.
 
Cal Poly Pomona (26-16, 18-15 CCAA) is percentage points back of the Golden Eagles and Seawolves.
 
The Broncos jumped out to a 5-0 lead after their first three at bats and had a pair of runners throw out at the plate. Cal State L.A. starter Ryan Santhon settled down after a rocky start and wound up going 7 1/3 innings and enabled his team to battle back.
 
That's exactly what the Golden Eagles did, scoring twice in the third and once in the seventh before overtaking the Broncos with a six-run eighth inning. James Wharton hit a two-run home run in the inning to make it 6-5, Chad Nacapoy singled in the tying run and Jeremy Weber singled in the go-ahead run. Nacapoy came around to score on a wild pitch and Scott Masik scored on a balk to account for the final runs.
 
Jacob Valenzuela pitched a scoreless ninth inning to pick up his third save of the season. Cedar Morgan got the final two outs in the seventh inning after replacing Santhon and got the win. Weber was 3-for-4 with three runs scored and three RBI.
 
Kevin Bosson did a masterful job for the Broncos through seven innings, but was unable to escape the eighth inning. He gave up 13 hits and nine runs.
 
Chris Miller was 3-4 with three RBI for the Broncos, while Nicholas Cooksey and Chris Curtis had two hits each.
 
The Broncos took advantage of a first-inning error and scored twice to take an early lead. Jenzen Torres drove in one run with a groundout and Miller doubled in the other.
 
Cal Poly Pomona made it 3-0 in the second on a run-scoring double by Curtis. The Golden Eagles got a big lift from Cliff Quick, who threw a runner out at the plate earlier in the inning.
 
The Broncos extended the lead to 5-0 in the third. Miller had a two-run triple, but he was cut down at home by Quick trying to score from third on a fly out by Jordan Whitman.
 
Cal State L.A. got two runs in the third on a two-run home run by Weber and sliced the deficit to 5-3 in the seventh on a triple by Weber and run-scoring grounder by Masik.
 
Cal Poly Pomona added an unearned run in the eighth, but the Golden Eagles then struck back with their six runs to take the game. Daniel Duran, who had two hits in the game, started the rally with a leadoff double. Cal State L.A. collected six hits in the inning, including the home run by Wharton, a double by Quick and singles by Manny Acosta, Nacapoy and Weber.
 
Cal State L.A. will return to action on Saturday with a doubleheader against Cal Poly Pomona in Pomona beginning at 11 a.m.